Biology

It may seem surprising to make use of findings in biology to develop an essentially psychological and spiritual approach. Yet the mind and body are one.

Thorough inspection of psychological mechanisms, from simple to complex, shows that biological factors are ubiquitous and often decisive. It is not by chance that most spiritual teachings point out the requirements in terms of lifestyle, including the eating habits and sexual life.

All behaviors are partly driven by impulses or instinctive flare, which originate in the body. Hunger as well as sexual appetite comes largely organic requirements and these should not be overlooked.

The mode of satisfaction of those basic instincts may lead, following an artificial search for pleasure, to all sorts of abuses, frustrations, inappropriate fixations, and other departure from obediance to what can be called the natural laws.

It is also the biology that provides the scalable ecopsychology its main scientific grounding through the laws of evolution. Many physiological or behavioral characteristics are genetically determined, and the result of a slow evolution. Although they do not let us explain every fact everything, this aspect can contribute in many cases to the understanding of natural behaviors and highlighting deviations they may suffer as a result of the constraints of civilization.

A organism “programmed” for a given environment, but placed in a different environment, can undergo all kinds of harm. Some adaptability is still present, but it has limitations. When the adaptability threshold is exceeded, discomfort, disease, mental disorders, behavioral disorders can appear.

When these problems are permanent, induced for example by daily feeding unsuited to genetic data of the body, they crystallize through self-packaging in the form of habits, character traits, stereotypical trends.

Note that the idea of “genetic programming” does not exclude free will. Impulses exert some pressure, to which the individual is not required to yield. For example it can deliberately reject a sex drive, or any envy; the result is often an obsessive state, depressive or aggressive, which demonstrates that the drive was genetically programmed.

There are also biological factors in the neurophysiological disorders and their impact on mental functioning. The absorption of a drug can radically change the mood, show aggressive or depressive tendencies, make unusually passive or otherwise excite to loss of self-control.

Some substances said to be aphrodisiac also influence sexual impulses. The latter being involved in love relationships are involved in loving relationships, one can understand, knowing the natural link between Eros and psychic abilities, that food and stimulants consumed daily can disrupt the psychic and spiritual development.

Common foods contain many exciting or euphoric substances such as gliadin gluten in some grains, or exorphins cow’s milk and dairy products, not to mention caffeine, caffeine, theobromine, the nicotine and other alkaloids of traditional use.

We can expect some impact of dietary habits on sexuality. The latter being involved in the development of psychic abilities, diet can influence to the spiritual life. It remains to know the extent of these influences, and to determine what would be the sex and spiritual under optimal feeding conditions.

Many mystics were known for their frugality and their fasts prologés. But it should be possible to define a natural diet free of stimulants factors.